


The Final Word in the Story of Skywalker.

by pseudoblues



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:26:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22364077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pseudoblues/pseuds/pseudoblues
Summary: Ben Solo's last scene in The Rise of Skywalker, depicted with the same second-person motif used in the Revenge of the Sith novelization. Intended as a parallel to Anakin's final chapter.
Relationships: Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	The Final Word in the Story of Skywalker.

_This is how it feels to be Ben Solo, for a moment:_

You open your eyes to darkness and sharp, unrelenting pain.  
The dark is cold, it always has been but you are no stranger to it.

You are a mound of cracked bone and battered bruised flesh.  
You could resign yourself to this fate, lay here and rest until the dark swallows you whole.  
But there is a pit in your stomach, the resounding feeling of a void in your very soul where once you had felt fire. A spark extinguished, a life extinguished.

So you climb to your feet, tearing muscle in the struggle to get yourself off of the dust-caked rock beneath you. Fingers dig into divots in stone that you can hardly see and you rise, one agonizing throw of your arm after the other. You climb: for disbelief, for defiance, for hope.

And when you pull yourself out of the abyss, you are met with horror to make you tremble.  
The battle is over, the dust has settled and before you lies the result. Rey collapsed on the ground. Limp. Dead. But you crawl forward, dragging yourself through the dirt. You’ve felt it, you still feel it. You know the truth but climb to your broken feet and hobble forward in desperate need to deny it. If you can just reach her, she’ll be alive. If you can just take one more step. If you can just hold her.

And you do, but it doesn’t change the truth. You take her into your arms, struggling because it’s hard to even hold up your own weight let alone hers. Her eyes are shut, she isn’t breathing, her skin is cold to the touch.

You feel lost, scared like a child astray in the market. You look to your surroundings for anything, anyone to fix this. To wake you up from the nightmare. Mother, Father, Uncle, anyone. But your silent prayers go unanswered, there is no one here but you. Only you. You are alone in the cold and dark as you always have been. Always, but not with her. Not with this scavenger, this stranger, this girl that understands you better than you do yourself. Two halves of the same soul. You love her and you have lost her like you have lost everything else you have ever held dear.

_No._ You refuse. Resolve pools in your core, you hold her close to your chest and breathe in.  
You have made your mind that the galaxy will not rob you of this, death will not take her. Let it be damned: the galaxy, the Sith, the Jedi, the will of the force itself.

You rest your palm on her side and find calm like that you have never felt in your life, you find focus despite your pain, you find peace. You feel the emptiness where once had been the fire of her light, into it you pour yourself. Everything you have, everything you are, everything you ever could until you feel the spark relight until you feel it burn. Until you feel her take you into her arms and her lips are upon your own. She speaks your name, _“Ben,”_ and for the first time in so very long, you feel the warmth of the light. 

You fall, and in your descent, the world fades.

This is how it feels to be Ben Solo. No more...


End file.
